There’s a problem within me, I have got to make a confession: I have monsters in my stomach! You think I’m joking? Do you honestly think that I am fat because I want to be fat? Do you not think I want to have a six pack like all the cool models in the magazines instead of my extra-large one pack?

For me every day is yet another battle against these monsters within my body. Let me tell you a bit about these feral creatures. Most of us would look at these ‘monsters’ as the great giant beasts we see in movies like King Kong, Frankenstein or Gringo. After watching a scary movie as a child, just before bed, one is tempted to beg for a friend or sibling to walk them to their room, I’m sure we have all been there. Why? Because we are scared. We are thinking that maybe tonight, any time tonight, the boogeyman might come for us, or maybe that ghost from SpongeBob, the Flying Dutchman, might just appear in your room. We as people have come to fear that which we see is outside and around us. It was only last year that a very famous monster was sighted again after being discovered over 212 years. Many of you may have heard of the Loch Ness Monster. This big fish like dinosaur that moves faster than Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps combined in water. Some of you may have also heard of other legends such as the Sasquatch a.k.a. Bigfoot. More locally we have the likes apparitions a.k.a. ‘zvidoma nematokolishi’!

As far as these beasts are concerned, I am forced to believe because I am sure that there is something eating me up on the inside. It does not just eat up the food I eat, no; it goes beyond that, it spends my money! Can you imagine the struggle my parents go through to make sure I am well fed and giving me just enough money every day, only to visit a tuck-shop to buy my monster’s favourite chocolate. At least I go to boarding school but believe me, when it’s holiday time, things change very quickly. Let me tell you, all I do is eat, sleep, eat repeat!

But there is a problem, you do not believe me because you do not believe in monsters, you just think I am a hungry fat boy all the time. But that’s how monsters take hold of you. They make you think that they do not exist, and then you start insulting those who say they have monsters then you get a bad reputation for being cold-hearted and cruel, yet the answer is simple! You have a monster in your heart. As for my monster, it started off with just a bit more sadza during supper, and then it went on to me wanting more chocolates. After that it became me stealing chicken from the kitchen at home before supper. These creatures are insidious, growing subtly and then we are gone and slaves to their every whim and wish. From the example I gave just now, it can be said that monsters breed other monsters in your life. They eventually become the big father-father aka ‘chibababa’!

Friedrich Nietzsche said ”One ought to hold on to one’s heart; for if one lets it go, one soon loses control of the head too”. This urges us to take responsibility in guarding our hearts from any and all forces that wish to intervene within. Keep yourselves as alert as a bird keeping your hearts as safe as a house from these monsters that try to take over. But now that we know they exist, surely we can do something about them now before they eat us up-no pun intended. I urge, take a look back at the old you from 2 years ago and search for these monsters. Grab a hold of them before it’s too late like my belly over here.

I beg of you to remember the words of a movie monster known as the Joker from Batman. He himself, a monster, said “we stopped checking for monsters under our beds when we realised that they were within us.” He turned into a monster as a result of those within him.